Turbine's clever concept to get closer to its consumers..

As cosmetic companies seek to develop a closer connection to consumers, Canada-based Turbine has come up with a consultancy concept to give its users the opportunity to be part of the team and an ambassador for the brand.

“We’ve seen the demand for our cosmetics grow and we have people constantly coming to us wondering how they can be part of our team,” explains company founder, Lisa Drader-Murphy.

“This was an opportunity to say to some of those women, okay we don’t have a job in the store but how does brand ambassador sound?” she tells this publication.

How it will work

The new concept will see Drader-Murphy’s team provide sales training and guidance to individuals in order to become fully fledged consultants who will then have the option to choose from one of three product kits.

“The consultants will work on an incentive-based commission and get to choose the products they sell and how much time and effort they dedicate to being a brand ambassador,” the founder explains.

The 'kits' feature a line of 86 mineral based cosmetics that have been recommended by the company's in house team of make-up professionals and those successful in becoming ambassadors for the brand will start on a 40 per cent commission rate.

Although a post on Turbine’s Facebook page this week indicates that the opportunity has gone down well, Drader-Murphy says she may well have to cap the number of consultants in each region to prevent over-saturation in each market.

“It’s not just a decision of, ‘should I sell Tupperware or Turbine cosmetics?’ It’s more focused than that. We want our clients to love the fact that they can own their own business because they love the product,” says the entrepreneur.

"We are looking for friends of the brand, not just those interested in the business opportunities," she adds.

Word of mouth

On querying the affordability of the $1,000-a-pop kits, Drader-Murphy tells CosmeticsDesign.com USA that some women are willing to make sacrifices in other areas to invest in something like her mineral line that will not only be aesthically pleasing but also benefit the skin at the same time.

When we started four years ago with the kits, we were mainly catering to the likes of make-up professionals but through word of mouth and on experiencing what our brand offers in our flagship store, more women started to become interested in investing in the kits.

Although the concept might be similar to that of Avon's for example, Drader-Murphy says that the company is not looking to embark on a multinational level right now but is open to the idea in the future.

"I've seenmany companies with great products not being able to sustain the business through the recession and it has been a consious effort on our part to keep things modest in order to grow at a conservative but successful rate," she concludes.

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As cosmetic companies seek to develop a closer connection to consumers, Canada-based Turbine has come up with a consultancy concept to give its users the opportunity to be part of the team and an ambassador for the brand.

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